The opening five minutes of A Boy And His Blob are utterly captivating. The player watches as a young boy is woken by a bright light and a distant thump outside his bedroom window. He gets up, slings on his backpack and heads out to investigate. As he makes his way through the forest surrounding his house, his footfalls against the soft grass are the only sounds that punctuate the chorus of crickets in the night air. The young lad reaches a crater in the ground and an oval-like blob with two eyes leaps into shot. The boy cries out in fear and runs away, then stops, turns and beckons the strange-looking alien over. The blob bounds up to him and bounces up and down. The young boy reaches over and hugs his new found companion.

And so begins an adorable tale of friendship and one of the most touching video game experiences of the year. A Boy And His Blob's most powerful draw is its ability to tug at the heartstrings of anyone who plays it. With its gorgeous, hand-drawn visuals and soft, tender soundtrack, the game looks like child's fairytale come to life and only someone with a heart made out stone could fail to be moved by what they see on the screen.

Of course, all of this makes it completely calculating; with its ability to reduce even the most grumpy cynics to dew-eyed softies, A Boy And His Blob may as well come with the words "universally appealing game for all ages" stamped on the box. This game may be incredibly cute – even for a Nintendo Wii title – but it's also manipulative. As players progress through A Boy And His Blob, they may be forgiven for thinking that the developers may have been depending on the game's beautiful presentation to help gloss over some of its gameplay shortcomings.

A Boy And His Blob is a platform game with a twist in that a lot of its progression is puzzle-based. A lot of these puzzle are based around the abilities of the Blob and his shape-shifting powers. These are activated by the young boy tossing him different coloured jelly beans which trigger different shapes. If the pair of them come against a tall platform, one jelly bean will transform the Blob into a ladder. If the ladder doesn't reach the platform, another jelly bean turns the Blob into a trampoline. In order to descend safely from a high platform, another jelly bean will change the Blob into a parachute and so on. All the shapes that the Blob can change into are mapped to a wheel menu and players can decide what position on a platform they'd like Blob to transform by aiming their jelly bean accordingly. Along the way, the Boy and the Blob will come across the odd treasure chest – which blob will then swallow – and these can later be used to unlock bonus levels.

A Boy And His Blob is not exactly a new IP; the game is a reworking of the 1989 NES title presided over by Pitfall! creator, David Crane, A Boy And His Blob: Trouble On Blobonia. But the new title differs quite a bit from its source in more than its sweet, heart-warming presentation – which replace the original's two-dimensional blocky graphics. Crane's game was considerably harder than this latest version. Players had to keep track of the number of jelly beans they had, as well as what type they were, to ensure they didn't land up facing impassable objects. The progression also involved far more trial and error and general exploration than Majesco's title. The protagonist in the new game has an inexhaustible supply of jelly beans for his shape-shifting friend, and players always start the level with the types of jelly beans they'll need to beat it.

While the new game does offer its fair share of puzzling moments, some of the solutions are spelt out to the player by a massive wooden sign behind the obstacles, showing what shape Blob should assume. Admittedly these become less frequent as the game goes on, but the players will never feel as though the game is taxing their grey matter too much. There's certainly nothing here on the level of Valve's Portal, for example. Also, while the pair of them come up against a ton of obstacles, none of them effect the blob in any way. For example, in one instance where the boy trampolines up to a higher level, the blob is left down below with no discernible way to follow him. However, all the boy need do is yell and his squishy friend turns into a balloon and floats up to him. It all looks very sweet but it does beg the question; why didn't blob just turn into a balloon and float the pair of them up there to begin with?

Of course, in the face of the game's lovely veneer, all of this criticism begins to look a little like nitpicking. It's true that A Boy And His Blob may not appear too challenging to hard-core players, and there are certainly some aspects of the gameplay that smack of missed opportunities. But the game has enough meat on its bones in its 40 levels and 10 or so hours of playing time to dodge accusations that it cheats players on content. With its beautiful presentation, well designed levels and two adorable titular characters, A Boy And His Blob is a game that rewards and appeals in equal measure. Would all curmudgeons now kindly leave the room on tiptoe...